Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire is a game that takes the player back to a different time. While, yes, it is highly advanced and quite masterfully crafted, its isometric style is clearly in honor of games of the past. This game is a real time action game, which means everything happens in real time. This game is certainly something that should make people who are fans of isometric games excited as it really does look like an older game.
Pillars 2 also has a character creation system, and that’s always a good thing. In this game there are a variety of different classes, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In choosing who you’ll play as, you are effectively crafting the most important character in the game.If your character dies, then you will have to start the game over
Sitting and crafting a character takes many steps, and at every turn there is always some trepidation. There isn’t anyway of knowing what the player will come across, and making a character is not something that should be done lightly. There are multiple races that each look very different and provide their own reasons for being selected as a player’s character. You really have to take stock and figure out the best character for you. Then, you need to select what they look like, what job class, what weapons, and other things, forming a truly powerful force to be reckoned with.
It is interesting to choose a character, because the player can choose to make someone normal or godlike. This isn’t often done in games, giving players this ultimate power is a grand action. The Godlike characters are truly the most mysterious of all the characters and using one of them with a bunch of regular party members made me feel like I really was a chosen hero. While there isn’t much background in this preview it was nice to have a blank slate legendary style hero to imagine a story onto.
This game then takes off with a wild world full of adventure. Players will be able to see many a locale, and discover many things as they explore. Take on quests and fight monsters in this wild world, but make sure to watch out, this is a world that is far less forgiving then it seems. This world really might have all adventurers want, but lurking in the shadows are monsters who have only killing in mind.
This game has quite the ship faring system, where traveling around the map, away from islands becomes just as important as land. There is an intense ship battle system that involves turn based combat. Making sure your crew is in working order is paramount as they will help you win or lose sea faring battles. You can even board ships and take down foes the old fashioned way.
Pillars 2 also has a deep AI combat system. With 5 characters to control, it is necessary to have your characters fight for themselves. With this system the player can set up actions for their characters. It is up to the player to guide their characters right, and having them auto attack can really save the player some struggle. Don’t forget to build up a strong close range group and have support characters take the rear. It is on the player to have things work well for most of the game, and the AI helps the player do just that.
Pillars 2, is truly an old school game come to the 21st century. It brings back all of the fun of classic isometric games while making it enjoyable for modern gamers. In this short bit I played, I was able to complete a quest and fight villains. The highlight was certainly making my character, and even though I would definitely make another character it was cool seeing her in action. Pillars of Eternity 2 is a game that will be coming soon to Steam. This preview was definitely a solid look at the game and as a player, I’d love experience more in future.
Disclaimer: We were provided with a preview key